Tag Archive for: Local SEO

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Understanding Local SEO

Most business owners with a website have heard of SEO—Search Engine Optimization. But in 2025, if your business serves a specific area or has a physical location, there’s one branch of SEO that should be high on your priority list: Local SEO.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to help your business appear in local search results. Whether someone’s searching for “best plumber near me” or “coffee shop open now,” Google and other search engines prioritize businesses that are not only relevant but hyperlocal—based on the user’s exact location.

As local search results become more personalized and map-driven, optimizing your website and listings for local intent is essential to getting discovered by customers who are ready to take action—whether that means making a call, getting directions, or visiting your storefront.

The Google 3-Pack

The Google 3-Pack refers to the top three business listings that appear in a box at the top of local search results (alongside a map). These listings typically show your business name, reviews, address, hours, and contact info—making it incredibly easy for potential customers to reach out or drop by.

While Google uses a variety of signals to determine which businesses appear in the 3-Pack, strong local SEO practices can significantly improve your chances of showing up there.

How to Optimize for Local SEO in 2025

Here are the most important strategies you should focus on this year:

Set Up and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is your most important local SEO asset. If you haven’t claimed and verified your listing yet, now’s the time.

Make sure to:

  • Add accurate business hours, contact info, and services

  • Choose the most relevant business category

  • Upload high-quality photos of your location or offerings

  • Regularly post updates or promotions

  • Respond to reviews promptly

Keeping this listing active and complete sends strong trust signals to both Google and your potential customers.

Claim your Google My Business listing here.

Embrace Hyperlocal Keywords

Generic city-wide terms aren’t enough anymore. Search engines now favour businesses that reflect specific neighbourhoods, districts, or landmarks.

What to do:
Update your website copy to include relevant local identifiers. Mention nearby streets, communities, or areas you serve. If you’re a service-based business, include the local regions you cover on your service pages.

Collect and Respond to Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are one of the biggest ranking signals in local search—and they influence user trust and click-throughs.

Encourage happy customers to leave reviews by:

  • Sending follow-up emails after service

  • Adding a review link in your email signature

  • Displaying signage in-store

  • Training staff to ask politely after a positive interaction

Always take the time to respond—especially to negative feedback. It shows you care and helps build credibility.

Optimize for Voice Search

With the rise of smart speakers and mobile voice assistants, local searches are often spoken rather than typed.

What to do:
Use natural, conversational language on your site. Add an FAQ page that answers common questions in plain terms, and structure your content so it’s easy for Google to pull snippets from.

Improve Your Mobile Experience

Most local searches happen on mobile devices—so your website needs to be fast, responsive, and easy to navigate on any screen size.

Key things to check:

  • Mobile-friendly design with readable fonts and easy buttons

  • Fast page load speeds

  • Click-to-call functionality

  • Accurate location info on every page (ideally in your footer)

A poor mobile experience can harm both your rankings and your reputation.

Add Location-Specific Content

Content is still king, and creating blog posts or landing pages that target local events, services, or community interests can help boost your visibility.

Ideas include:

  • Blogs about local festivals or news

  • Highlighting partnerships with nearby businesses

  • Showcasing customer stories from your area

This type of content builds trust and relevance while targeting local search terms.

Although these are just some of the ways to optimize your website for local SEO, following these steps will surely improve your ranking and increase your chances of being featured in the Google 3-Pack. 

Need help with your website SEO? Not sure where to start? We can help! Read more about our Search Engine Optimization Services here.

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Whistler Lifestyle PhotographyCloud9 Marketing
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Local SEO for your Whistler Business Guide

Whistler offers an amazing array of top-quality services and companies. While this is what makes us such an incredible community, it also means that there is a lot of competition for local businesses. Your website allows you to speak to the entire online world, but if you’re offering local services you need to be predominantly targeting potential customers in Whistler. Optimizing your website for your geographical area is essential for boosting your SEO, and for showing customers exactly where they can find you. Here are our top tips on how you can improve your local SEO and generate better traffic through location-based searching.

#1 Get on Google My Business

Registering your business with Google My Business is the first step to optimizing your local SEO. It’s completely free to do, and allows you to manage your online presence across Google’s search pages, including Maps. It asks you to fill in a mini summary of your business that gets displayed at the top of Google’s results pages. This means it is essentially the first impression potential clients will get of your business, before even clicking on your website. It’s also important to update this on a regular basis with new photos, information, hours, etc. As well, encourage your customers and clients to review your business on Google – even a few reviews looks good.

Local SEO Map Pack

What people see when they Google Cloud9 Marketing

#2 Keep your contact information consistent

It’s crucial that all your information is the same across online platforms. Not only does this make it easy for customers to find you, but also it shows you uphold a reliable business. NAP (your company’s name, address and phone number) is your digital thumbprint, and if this information fails to align across the different online profiles of your business, Google will recognise these inconsistent listings. The more times Google ‘sees’ your thumbprint on reputable websites, the more confident it becomes that it is displaying a trustworthy business in its search results.

#3 Build your online credibility

Even though this one takes time, having a solid catalogue of good reviews on your page is going to elevate your local credibility and improve your SEO ranking. A recent survey found that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Don’t be afraid to sincerely ask customers for reviews, and make it easy for them to do so by offering a multitude of potential review sites to use, such as Google+, Facebook and Yelp.

#4 Connect with other local Whistler businesses

If the Internet didn’t exist, you’d probably have to promote your business through regular networking, or by joining a Whistler business group, right? The truth is, you should still be doing the equivalent of this online. Start liaising with other local businesses and linking them on your site, and this will hopefully encourage them to return the favour. By engaging with respected companies you will show search engines that you are a trusted, reliable source.

#5 Write great content

If you keep producing quality, locally orientated content, then results will naturally follow. Keep your customers interested and engaged to increase their affinity with your brand. This can be via content promotions, polls, or just some interesting posts about what’s going on in Whistler next weekend. Maintaining steady blog posts and social media posts demonstrates your involvement in the local community, and can be a super effective way to increase your SEO.

Check out our tips on blogging to improve your SEO!

If you’re looking to get your Whistler business out there and feature on local search results, we can help. Cloud9 Marketing offers free SEO audits at no obligation.

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